


Luke's Redemption

by inthemeadow (kendra189)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22260310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kendra189/pseuds/inthemeadow
Summary: Post-kiss in Exegol, Ben has a conversation with uncle Luke in the afterlife. (No permanent Ben Solo Death!)
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 22
Kudos: 207





	Luke's Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> I’m no writer. But I thought I’d try my hand at a Fix-it Fic. I found writing this to be very cathartic. I hope you all enjoy!

Ben found himself suddenly standing. He looked around, dazed. From what he could tell, he was still in the throne room on Exegol, where, not moments, ago, he and Rey were hand in hand on the ground, and Rey stunned him by kissing him. He knew, even before she gave him the best moment of his life, that he was about to die. She had only survived her battle with the Emperor because Ben transferred his life force into her. As she gently whispered his name… his real name, to him, he could already feel his life slipping away, and his connection with the force becoming more unified.

He stood and looked over and saw his own body about ten feet away, lifeless on the ground, and his darling Rey was still leaning over him, trying desperately to rouse him.

He couldn’t conclusively tell if he was dead. He assumed so, based on the out of body experience, but he always thought the afterlife would feel more peaceful. But, despite his ethereal state, everything still hurt, his leg still felt as if it was broken, his head was pounding and all of his muscles were on fire. Maybe this was the beginning of hell. Ben wouldn’t have been surprised, he knew hell was where he belonged.

Suddenly he realized he was not alone in this other plane of existence. There, mere feet in front of him, was his reviled uncle. Just staring at him with his usual smug look on his face.

Ben scoffed and looked down at his feet and nodded to himself. “So this IS hell.”

Luke smiled sagely, and took a few steps in Ben’s direction.

“Hello dear nephew.”

Ben sighed and hobbled over and sat down on a nearby boulder. He said nothing but stared at the ground, resigned to his fate. He struggled with his emotions of sadness and longing for Rey, but vowed to handle this next step with the courage of conviction he had when he saved Rey’s life only minutes earlier.

Luke glanced over at Rey in the distance, still leaning over Ben’s form.

“Quite a thing you did there.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You gave her your life force…”

“Yes. I did.”

“You _died_ for her…. So she could live.”

Ben said nothing, but looked up at Luke and nodded decisively.

“A surprising move, dear nephew. I would have thought you would yearn to live. You were finally free. For the first time in your life. Your WHOLE life. You were free. No more voices infiltrating your mind. You broke free of Snoke, and then broke free of your self-imposed shackle of Kylo Ren. And now the Emperor's finally gone too. Don’t you think you deserved to be able to spend some time finally able to make your own choices? You fought so hard, only to give her everything you had. Just like that…”

Ben looked over at Rey still leaning over his body. He stared a beat too long, feeling wistful for the wonderful feeling of having gotten to touch her.

“It’s better that she lives instead of me. She’ll use that life to do some _real_ good for the galaxy.”

“Would you do it again? If you could do it over?”

Ben stared at Luke in anger. Was he seriously asking if Ben regretted his decision? Does he really have to explain how much Rey meant to him? She was the best thing that ever happened to him and he would have done anything to protect her. Feeling her light die as he was climbing back up from over the cliff was the worst torment he had ever experienced. At Snoke’s hand, he had experienced some true horrors, but none compared to that sinking feeling that he was too late. To feel like he had failed her, when she needed him most, only to then realize he had one last thing he could do. Trade his life for hers… Reward her bravery, her beautiful character and her light with the survival she deserved.

“I would do it again a thousand times over.” Ben said with a vigour of conviction.

“I love her, and it was my honour to die for her.”

He was surprised at how easy it was to say that out loud. He had held onto that for so long, burying it deep within himself, that he wasn’t sure he even knew how to say the words. He was surprised to find that admitting his feelings turned out to be one of the easiest things he had ever done.

Luke smiled gently in response, eyes never wavering from Ben’s face. After a beat of silence, he looked over at Rey. She had tried unsuccessfully to rouse Ben, and now was sitting alone with her grief. At that moment, she couldn’t help herself as a flood of tears made their way to her face with a silent sob. She bent over Ben’s body and touched her forehead to his chest, all while still holding his hand. Ben and Luke both watched her in silence. 

“She’s mourning for you..” Luke said as he casually glanced back toward Ben.

Ben looked over at Rey crying and yearned to reach out and take her in his arms. Instead he just shrugged and looked back down at his feet. “It’ll pass.”

Luke cocked his head to the side and looked coyly at his nephew. “Will it? She knows what you did for her. You opened up to her and she finally got to see who Ben Solo truly is. Personally, I think he’s a hard man to forget.”

Ben flicked his eyes up at his uncle, unable to hide his unabiding disdain for the man. “That’s a _bit rich_ , coming from you.” 

Luke just raised his eyebrows, nodded and sighed, as if to admit he had no defence. “You’re right, Ben. About everything. And looking back on my own life, you are my biggest regret.”

“Well THANKS FOR THAT, _uncle_ Luke. Yes, I’m sure your life would have been much better if you’d just struck me down in my sleep. Or better yet, if I had never been born-”

Luke interrupted Ben and stated with conviction: “I should have had faith in you. I wish I had tried harder with you and been more open minded. I wish I had seen how much you were struggling. Maybe you would have trusted me, even a little and let me at least _try_ to help you.

Ben just shrugged his shoulders. Somehow his life being over had given him a sense of resolve about everything. He just didn’t have it in him to fight and hate anymore.

“It’s not your fault. Not really.”

Luke shot Ben one of his signature eye rolls.

“Ok, it’s not _only_ your fault. Or my parents’ fault. I could have helped myself more. But I was weak. And in the end, it was ….just easier… to ….give in.”

“But that night you gave in. Everyone blamed you for those children’s death. The rest of your life from that moment on, Ben Solo was said to be responsible for the death of seven children.”

“Doesn’t matter. It may as well have been me. Snoke only killed them because of me. He said he’d stop if I left the temple and went to join him.” Ben just shrugged off the memory, too painful to go into further detail.

“At least you were able to save some of them. Where _did_ you end up hiding them?”

Ben just shrugged. “Couple of planets on the outer rim. So they’d be beyond Snoke’s reach with the Force. I think it worked. That or he just … lost interest. He never mentioned them again. So I ….don’t know. Besides, their survival doesn’t matter, I’ve done far worse things since then.”

“Indeed you have. You buried your humanity, for a long time. But not too long ago, it started to rise back to the surface. I’d say around the time you met Rey. And then, much later, you successfully destroyed Snoke. Again, for her.” Luke said, glancing over at Rey.

Ben looked up at his uncle annoyed “Is this what the afterlife is then? You … _telling …_ my life to me? Because I was there. I know what I did. And I know why I did it.”

“It just seems to me, that Rey had a pretty big impact on you.”

Now it was Ben’s turn to roll his eyes. “ _Very_ perceptive, uncle. I’ve already said I love her, I’m not sure what great revelation you think you’re making here.”

Ben stole a glance over at Rey. She had sat back up from leaning into his chest. She appeared to still be silently crying, but she also appeared to be talking to him. He couldn’t hear what she was saying but she smiled occasionally and looked down at him with a warmth so palpable he could almost feel it from this other plane of existence.

“It just doesn’t seem right, Ben. That you two don’t get to spend any real time together. That you had to die so she could live.”

“Well that’s the choice I made and, like I said, I would make it again.”

“You don’t think you deserve to live too?”

“No.”

Luke took a moment to look at his nephew. “Because of ‘all of the things you’ve done’ as you said?”

“Yes. I should die.”

Luke looked at his nephew and said: “Well, I disagree.”

Ben stood up, annoyed and impatient at his uncle’s musings. “I don’t care what you think.”

“Ben-“

Ben grew impatient and started to pace back and forth, still painful on his injured leg. “Listen, can we get on with it? Take me to heaven, or to hell or let me just…. Fade away? Whatever it is that comes next?”

Luke smiled gingerly and followed Ben’s pacing with his eyes. He gestured gently in Rey’s direction. 

“You don’t want to… stay here with her?”

Luke had chosen his words _very_ carefully, but Ben was growing forlorn about parting from Rey and missed the nuance, assuming he meant stay and watch her a little longer, before she inevitably left his body behind.

Ben had stopped pacing and just stood, staring at the ground. “No, I’d rather she leave and get to safety, frankly.”

He wanted to look over at Rey again but he wasn’t sure he could bear to see the moment she inevitably stood up and parted from him forever.

Despite his best efforts, he stole a glance. She had leaned back over his chest and appeared to be gently hugging him. She still held his hand and had her other hand resting lightly in his hair.

Luke took Ben’s moment of distraction and walked straight over to Ben.

“Listen, Ben.” He started “In life, I _failed_ you. You needed not just a teacher, but a supporter. You needed someone to believe in you. To have faith in you”

Ben just stared back at his uncle, feeling too defeated to fight him anymore.

“But now, I have a chance to right that wrong.”

“Please, just stop” Ben pleaded “I don’t want to hear anymore from you.”

“You gave Rey all your life force so she could live. A noble, and selfless act of love. And I’m immeasurably proud of you for that. Your mother and father would be too. You’ve done some bad things in your life, that’s true. But you’ve also been enslaved by the dark side, who infiltrated your mind since childhood. You don’t have to die to redeem your humanity.”

“Doesn’t matter now, uncle, though does it?” Ben said, thinking he was pointing out the obvious fact that he _was_ dead.

“You. Are a good man.”

Despite his best efforts to fight it, Ben could feel the beginnings of tears of his own start to form.

“And you’re not dead, Ben. Not yet.”

Ben furrowed his brows in confusion and looked up at his uncle, but Luke was far from done.

“Contrary to your belief, this-“ Luke gestured around them “Isn’t hell. It isn’t GREAT, but it isn’t hell.”

Luke adopted a more serious tone as he looked at Ben once again:“Rey doesn’t need to have all your life force to live. Not if the Force…. _Intervenes_ a little.”

Luke took another step toward Ben so that he was standing right in front of him. He looked up into his nephew’s eyes “This is your second chance, Ben. You’re free. Don’t waste your life in the shadows. Live the kind of life I _know_ you are capable of. Dare to do great things for yourself and for the galaxy. Dare to fight for the life you want. The life you deserve.”

Ben was confused and afraid to hope. He wasn’t sure what was coming next as Luke said his final remark “Be great, kid. I believe in you.”. Luke cupped Ben’s cheek and, the next instant, Ben was back on the ground and opened his eyes with a start and a sharp intake of air.

Rey, still embracing what she thought was just his body, jolted back in surprise.

“Ben??”

Ben was disoriented. He looked around briefly, but Luke was gone. He immediately looked over at Rey. His beautiful Rey, just inches in front of him. She looked emotional and confused. Rey was still holding his hand, only instead of it loosely sitting in hers, he gripped hers back with purpose.

She glanced down at their hands and back to his face. She was clearly struggling to understand what had just transpired. “You were dead, I … _felt_ it….”.

Ben struggled to sit up. Rey helped him, still never once letting go of his hand. She gently touched the side of his face as the faintest smile started to come over her lips. Just as Ben was about to lean in, something caught Rey’s eye over her left shoulder, and there was Luke, once again.

“I hope you don’t mind Rey, but you won’t need all of Ben’s life force to life, so I took some of it and gave it back to him.”

Rey let out a light chuckle through her tears “No I don’t mind at all.” She said as she smiled and glanced at Ben.

Luke made sure to address the both of them: “You two are a dyad in the force as you, dear nephew, so astutely deduced not too long ago.”

“But now you share a life too. So I’d look out for each other, if I were you. If one of you dies, then the other is _finito_ as well. You don’t have to stay together forever, but … take care of each other. And May the Force be with you.” Luke smiled at Rey and Ben and was gone, for a second time, as quickly as he had arrived.

Ben watched as Rey stared another moment at the space that Luke had just been standing. She slowly turned her attention back to Ben. She seemed at a loss for words and simply stared into Ben’s eyes. Ben was all too happy to say nothing and look back into hers.

“Hi!” She managed to blurt out through a faint laugh.

“Hi.” Ben immediately replied. And Rey finally let go of his hand only to immediately grab both sides of his face and kiss him again. Ben revelled in the kiss and immediately wrapped both of his arms around her. He felt suddenly so overcome with emotion. He had said goodbye to her with the knowledge that they would never again be together. To be with her now, and to have her bestow affection on him so decidedly and with such passion was almost more than he could handle.

Rey slowly broke off the kiss but kept her face close to his and smiled at him.

They would have kissed again but for a low rumble from the planet’s core that caught both their attention. Rey immediately sprung into action and jumped to her feet. Seeing that Ben was still very injured, she gently held out a hand to help him up.

“Take my hand.”

Ben stared at her outstretched hand and up at her face. He placed his hand in hers and got to his feet.

Getting up from the ground of that cave up to surface level was a challenge that exhausted the both of them. He needed a lot of help to walk, but arm in arm, the two of them managed to make it back to their ships. Ben climbed in the cockpit of Luke’s x-wing and Rey gently sat down on his lap, careful of his broken leg. Rey piloted the ship and took them away from Exegol, both knowing they would never return.

“Where should we go?” Asked Ben, feeling almost overwhelmed at the options.

“Anywhere I can sleep for days and days. Somewhere _warm_.” Replied Rey as she leaned gently back into his chest.

“I know just the place” responded Ben as he reached around her body and punched in coordinates for Naboo, his grandmother’s home planet. Somehow he just knew its where they belonged. It was home.


End file.
